In older construction practices when a hinged door was desired to applied to a room, the studs in room's wall construction were arranged to create a doorway, substantially an opening or egress into the room, between rooms, closet or like. Additional materials (generally wood) were further selected, measured, cut and installed within the doorway to form a frame that could movably hold (e.g., by hinges) the door. A door was then selected and then subsequently movably attached to the frame by screw fasteners (e.g., the door and frame generally acting as anchoring bases for the screw fasteners). In many instances of such construction, one or more of the screw fasteners attaching the hinges to the frame not only penetrated into the frame but moved further into the studs that formed the doorway to firmly securing the hinge(s) to the frame.
In more modern times, the prefabricated method of door construction, which provides a saving of time and money over the older methods of doorway construction, has the door and frame generally being simultaneously constructed and then attached together according to industry-standardized dimensions. Once a building's doorway is constructed, then a previously selected prefabricated door/frame is inserted into the doorway and with appropriate screw fasteners that attach the doorframe to studs composing the doorway. In such instances, the screw fasteners used to originally attach the door to the frame are not the screw fasteners used for subsequent attachment of the frame to the doorway. Further, such prefabricated door/frames generally used screw fasteners that attach the hinges to the frame that do not pass beyond the frame into the studs (thus allowing the frame to be fitted to the doorway in the first place.) Generally is using such small length screw fasteners (that do not fully penetrate the door frame) for frame-based hinge attachment, these screw fasteners may lack sufficient attachment interaction with the frame to attach and hold the respective hinge to the frame for long term usage. Over a period of time, the door weight and opening/closing door movement acting upon the respective hinge may loosen or pull out the hinge screw fastener(s) altogether from the prefabricated frame/door.
In such instances, the diameter of the screw hole may have been worked over time to be larger than the diameter of the respective stripped-out screw fastener. If the screw fastener is then subsequently inserted back into the respective screw hole, the respective screw hole may be too large for the screw fastener to re-attach the frame or like with sufficient fastening capacity to hold the hinge in place. The result could be a door that no longer opens and closes properly (e.g., the door could sag in alignment to the frame.)
This issue could also arise in other door-associated construction, namely storage cabinets and the like as commonly found in kitchens and other areas of a building, as well as gates and fences, and the like. In these types of door/gate-associated construction, their building costs may be reduced by the incorporation of wood fiber products (e.g., fiber board), wood laminates and the like which may have less fastener holding capacity (softer) than older plain types of wood products. Similarly, the action and weight of the doors over time may work loose the screw fasteners holding on the hinges to the door and/or the frame. This consequence could eventually cause the door to sag in relation to the frame/cabinet, also preventing the cabinet door from properly closing or opening all the way.
A common repair technique for fixing a door/frame stripped-out screw hole could involve the use of adhesive and repair material to file in the screw hole to make the stripped-out screw hole's diameter small enough to allow the stripped-out or loosely held screw fastener's thread to re-engage it in a secure a manner. In this context, the term “stripped-out screw fastener” does not mean that the screw fastener itself has lost its threads, rather that the action upon the screw fastener has made its respective screw hole stripped-out or enlarged. The start of such a repair technique could be the removal of the stripped-out screw fastener (if it has not already fallen out.) The corresponding hinge could be also removed from the effected attachment site (e.g., the frame or the door) to allow clear access to the stripped-out screw hole. A suitable adhesive (e.g., a white water-based glue or a silicone caulk) may then be inserted/injected into the stripped-out screw hole along with suitable reinforcement materials (e.g., wood such as tooth picks or other such materials) to decrease or otherwise generally restore the original diameter of the stripped-out screw hole to allow the stripped-out screw fastener to be successfully re-anchored into the repaired screw hole.
This repair procedure may be seen as have several drawbacks. The repair procedure could take several hours to complete (and hence result in increased repairman costs and times) depending on how long the adhesive or silicone caulk takes to cure. Also, this repair reinforcement may also require the repaired/reduced screw hole to be re-centered and re-drilled, which if not carefully done may cause the screw hole to be off-center to the respective hole in the hinge that goes over the screw hole.
What could be needed is a new repair system and method of re-securing screw fasteners being used to secure a door to a respective frame once the screw fastener has outstripped its respective screw hole. Such a repair system could comprise a fastener anchor and a securing fastener. The fastener anchor could be a double open-ended hollow cylinder, the two open ends continuously connecting a threaded lengthwise center channel. One open end could be tapered while the other open end could be flat and further shaped to removably receive a portion of a driving instrument like a hex head wrench, a screw driver or the like that can be used to rotate the fastener anchor into the screw hole. The outside length of the cylinder could be threaded as well to engage the screw hole.
The securing fastener have a head connected to a threaded portion whose thread substantially reciprocally or complementarily corresponds to the thread of the threaded lengthwise center channel. The head could also be adapted to removably receive a portion of a driving instrument like a hex head wrench, a screw driver or the like that can be used to rotate the securing fastener into the fastener anchor.
The method of using this repair system could start with the removal of the original screw fastener from the respective stripped-out screw hole. A drill with an appropriate drill bit or reamer whose size substantially matches the external diameter of the cylinder (minus the external thread) could be used to drill or ream out the original screw hole to accept the fastener anchor. The tapered open end of the hollow cylinder could be inserted first into the drilled-out screw hole while a driver instrument (e.g., a hex key or Allen wrench) could be attached to the other open end. The rotating or driver instrument could then be used to rotate the fastener anchor into the resized screw hole so that the external side threads could bite into and engage the door or frame generally surrounding and defining the screw hole. The fastener anchor is substantially rotated (also by a rotating instrument) into generally solid attachment with door or frame until the second open end is flush with the surface of the door or frame. The hinge could then be replaced over the fastener anchor and the securing fastener be inserted through the hinge to engage the fastener anchor's threaded lengthwise center channel. The securing fastener is then rotated into the fastener anchor until the hinge is properly re-attached to the door or frame to properly and fully re-securing the door and frame back together. This new repair system and method could be used for room doors/frames, cabinet doors and frames; gates and fences; and any other structure that have may have a hinge generally attached to wood product.